What don't you want with that? - Off Topic

A very long time ago I worked at Wendy's, for three months right after I turned sixteen. It was a proud moment, my first job, independence, my own money all that stuff. It wasn't so much that it was Wendy's as it was a JOB! I went to a team meeting at one point where all the area restaurants gathered one evening to hear the marketing spiel. It was just as salad bars were all the craze and the honcho stated emphatically that, "Wendy's wouldn't be catering to that sort of silliness...we're going to stick to what we do best, burgers."

Okay maybe he didn't say it exactly that way but like I said before, my memory ain't what I used to remember it to be. So imagine my suprise when a few months later after moving on to a real restaurant job I find my old employer undergoing a renovation to put in a salad bar!

Fast forward a few decades...

I was at Houston's Bush International Airport (IAH) the other night waiting for my flight home. Just missed the earlier flight by a nose but was pleasantly surprised to find that when I used my phone to board "electronically" that I'd been upgraded to first class! But I digress...

The only fast food place (burger joints) I go to these days when I do is Wendy's. The others all make me ill within an hour of eating or at least I feel poorly enough to wish I hadn't eaten there. Used to be a time when I could eat a Burger King meal everyday, cast iron roadie stomach. But age and better diet habits change you. I still visit Subway and Quizno's routinely without ill effect.

Soooo with almost three hours to kill I decide I want a Wendy's burger and fries and most especially the treasonous vanilla frosty (as we all know they are supposed to be chocolate! Tradition says so!). I walk up to the cashier and utter what I've been saying to Wendy's cashiers for practically forever (at least a decade), "Number 1 combo, cheese, catsup & pickle ONLY, medium frosty, vanilla, please." Now you know my simple taste in a burger...

His response, "What don't you want on it?"

So I repeated my order thinking maybe I'd get a different result (I know...insanity). He repeats his mantra... I say, "I have no idea what you CAN put on the burger, I just know what I WANT on it." "Why do I have to tell you what I DON'T WANT on it??????" His response was, "Because that's the way the cash register is set up."

Things have changed at Wendy's, some for the better...like vanilla frosty's. Some for the worse, like having to know everything that I don't want them to put on my burger instead of what I want.

Next time I'll be ready though. I'll say, "Number 1 combo, no chili fries, no A1 Sauce, no spaghetti, no meatballs, no liverwurst, no chocolate syrup, no hot sauce, no avocado, no marmalade..." I could go on forever!

Btw, the only thing this post has to do with Revit is that I was in Houston doing Revit training. For some more observant comments about travel check out Seth Godin's blog post...as a fellow traveler I can relate.